Saturday, 25 September 2010

The Lost Art of Waiting On The Lord (Part 1)

Have you ever had to wait for something?  It’s not easy is it?!  We are so used to getting things immediately.  Think about it, we live in an ‘instant’ world.  We boil our water in electric water cookers that reduces the boiling time to a minute instead of five.  We pour that boiling water into our cup of instant coffee and presto, instant hot coffee.  We microwave our instant oatmeal.  Or break out the instant pancake batter!

We press one button on our iPhones or smartphones and instantly it’s on - and with a couple swipes of the finger, we instantly have the day’s news, weather, traffic reports.  We check our emails, Facebook, Twitter and instantly know what others are thinking, doing, saying, reading, watching, listening to, eating, drinking, making or where they are going.  We can pick up our iPads (those of you who have one!) and instantly it's on and we can search bing or google and instantly have the answer to virtually any question we can think of.  We have Tivo and Netflix and Hulu and whatever else that gives us instant entertainment.  In our world, we can instantly have all that we are looking for - answers, knowledge, gratification, satisfaction.  Immediately.

And sometimes (perhaps often, at least for me), we want the same from God.  When we pray, we want an instant answer.  When we have to make a decision, we want God’s direction instantly.  We have 1-minute Bibles and devotions because we can't wait and want God to speak to us in that 1 minute.  We have 10 minute sermons for the same reasons.  We have lost the art of waiting on the Lord.

Here are just SOME of the benefits of waiting upon the Lord…


  • Waiting gives us time during which we can trust God and allow Him to work.

  • Waiting prepares us to have our real needs met (and they are not always what we started praying for!).

  • Waiting allows us the chance to work out our faith, to step out in faith.

  • Waiting teaches us to deny ourselves and to seek God and His righteousness and His Kingdom.


Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the LORD
!’ - Ps 27.14




‘Our soul waits for the LORD;
He is our help and our shield.’ - Ps 33.20




‘Rest in the LORD,
and wait patiently for Him….’ - Ps 37.7a

Next time we'll look a little deeper at what it means to wait upon the Lord.  But for now, consider your daily routine - is there time for God?  Is there time to wait upon Him?  And just that you know, I am just as guilty as the next guy.  So maybe this is more for me.  But I don't think I am alone....

(to be continued...)

Sunday, 19 September 2010

International Talk Like A Pirate Day

Well, it's here again.  Tomorrow, the 19th of Sept is International Talk Like A Pirate Day.  In honor of this day, here are a few things you can do to take part.  Enjoy!


  • Translate any webpage into pirate speak at Translate-Pirate.  It's hilarious.  I translated our PhamilyNews blog and had a read and was cracking up so much I almost peed my pants!



  • Facebook - those of you on FB can change your language to pirate english.  Login and then go to your account settings > language > choose english (pirate) in the list (it's near the middle/bottom, after all the more 'official' languages).




  • And of course, you can go to the official Talk Like A Pirate website and get the latest.  They also have a Pirate-English dictionary that will help you understand your pirate friends.  Here's an excerpt...


Ahoy! - "Hello!"

Avast! - Stop and give attention. It can be used in a sense of surprise, "Whoa! Get a load of that!" which today makes it more of a "Check it out" or "No way!" or "Get off!"

Aye! - "Why yes, I agree most heartily with everything you just said or did."

Aye aye! - "I'll get right on that sir, as soon as my break is over."

Arrr! - This one is often confused with arrrgh, which is of course the sound you make when you sit on a belaying pin. "Arrr!" can mean, variously, "yes," "I agree," "I'm happy," "I'm enjoying this beer," "My team is going to win it all," "I saw that television show, it sucked!" and "That was a clever remark you or I just made." And those are just a few of the myriad possibilities of Arrr!

So there you are, take some time and enjoy the day.  And git yer pirattitude on!

Saturday, 18 September 2010

Making A Mess To Make Yummy Things

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According to some 'experts', 'you have to make a mess to make yummy things'!   So here is our 3 year old expert, making some yummy things.  Or maybe just making a mess.  You decide.  ;-)

ps - Auntie Doro, we were gonna send you some of the 'mess', I mean bagels, but we ate them all!

Wednesday, 15 September 2010

Christchurch Earthquake Update

For those who have been asking about the earthquake in Christchurch, here is a quick update. The Calvary down there has been going into the shelters and ministering to people affected by the quake. Just comforting them, sharing with them from God's word and most important, simply listening to the people share about what happened to them. Often that is the best thing to do - simply listen.

They were invited to do a church service at the shelter - mainly worship songs with testimonies from people from the church in between songs. They are not allowed to give a full message/sermon, but the songs and testimonies give the gospel. ;-)



Also they have been able to give out emergency supplies for people to start making an earthquake preparedness kit. We here in Wellington were able to ask around and get several organizations to donate material for the people and the kits. We want to thank Energizer NZ for donating 200 torches (that's flashlights for us Yanks) with batteries; MISH Ltd. for donating 500 glowsticks and Bible Society NZ for 200 NT's and various literature. We are still waiting for a few other organizations to get back to us.

In any case, please pray for the people in the shelters - CC Christchurch was invited to come back this Sunday to do another service. Pray that the seed of the gospel is planted. Pray that people will turn to God, not just during their time of need but even afterwards. Pray that people see their security is only in Jesus.



Friday, 10 September 2010

New Phamily Site

Hi all, just wanted to welcome you all to our new website.  It's under construction still, so this isn't the final look.

At the moment it just consists of our previous blog, which is now hosted here instead of at blogger.com.

In the future we hope to be able to add foto albums and other media.  So be patient and stay tuned....

Thursday, 9 September 2010

New Website / Blog

Hi all, we now have a new website - www.phamilynews.net.  At the moment, it consists only of this blog here, but hosted at our new site.  This will be the last post for this blog. 

From now on, you can catch all the Phamily happenings at the new website / blog - www.phamilynews.net.  Thanks and see you over there!